Winning CSR partnerships in Europe get rewarded

Responsible and sustainable business practices are increasingly important during this economic downturn. As Europeans have less confidence in business than some years ago, it is crucial that the business community makes the restoration of trust and legitimacy a priority. Renewed focus on products and services that address environmental and social needs is a viable route back to growth and job creation.

This pan-European award scheme aims to inspire corporate social responsibility (CSR) excellence in partnerships, with particular emphasis on collaborative programmes that tackle sustainability through innovation. 

Successful projects represent a variety of industries, ranging from banking to pharmaceutical.

Antonio Tajani, the European Commission’s vice president for industry and entrepreneurship, said yesterday that the remarkable work of the winning partnerships highlights the best in CSR practices in Europe today. 

It shows that a strategic approach to CSR is increasingly important to the competitiveness of SMEs and large companies. It also encourages more social and environmental responsibility from corporations at a time when the crisis has damaged consumer confidence and trust in business.

In Bulgaria, Piraeus Bank ensured stable financial support and developed a donations campaign for Unicef in its work to provide humanitarian assistance to children. 

Guna, an Italian homeopathic medicine company, worked with development NGO COOPI to help revitalise ancient medical traditions in Paraguay while boosting employment in indigenous groups. 

A biotech and agriculture company in Denmark, BioCover, used attributes of various existing fertiliser products as part of a new process control, in which the individual products’ negative qualities effectively cancel each other out, creating a sustainable organic fertiliser in combination with conventional fertiliser – something that has never been done before.

The European award scheme for CSR partnerships between enterprises and other stakeholders was launched last year. The awards are organised by the EC together with CSR Europe, and the winning partnerships of business and non-business organisations were selected for national awards in two categories – small and medium enterprises, and larger companies.